, 1887-06-21
THE MOON AND THE WEATHER.

Some scientific Facts Regarding nm Old
Superstition-The Tides.
Adam Forepaugh sat on a nail keg on
tho elevated seats. Chicago 2" said he;
why Chicago is the greatest show town
in tho world; and then tho moon-why,
we've got another week of the moon be-
fore the change"
What's that got to do with iti" the
reporter asked.
"a good deal" he answered. 'sIt's a
dry noon. Whenever you see a moon
lie o n its back it never rains"
The o conversation took place one
afternoon, and within thirty-six hours
thereafter the first rain in several weeks
was falling,
OF all surviving neutrality-suspicious.,
that Of the influence of the moon on the
weather dies the hardest; and the belief
that the $50 called) .'changes'' of the
moon are accompanied or followed by
changes in the condition of the terrestrial
atmosphere is still to be found among a
very large number indeed of otherwise
educated and enlightened people. A re-
cent writer in The English Mechanic has
examined the grouDds of this belief and
attributes it to the weather predictions in
the almanacs of the early part Of the cen
tury.
AS to the moon changing, =" one would
imagine, to hear tho majority of people
talk, that q ''change" Of the moon is in
some sense cognate with a coniuring
trick, in which the performer, after show
ing that he has nothing in his hand, in
Simultaneously produces an egg, an orange,
or a ball from it. Now nothing could
well be further from the truth than this.
the fact being that the moon is always
changing-.01 second before conjunction
she is waning, .01 second after it she is
waxing, and so throughout her monthly
path. When her (celestiaD longitude Is
identical with that Of the sun she is said
in the almanac to be "new;'' when such
longitude differs 90 degrees from the
suns toward the east she is in her first
quarter" when they are separated by
$50 degrees the moon Is full, " and when
she has Travelled to that point in her orbit
in which she is 60 degrees to the west of
the sun she ID said to be in her s'last
quarter III each case it being assumed
that h is viewed from the earth's cen
ter. The use of the word ''change,"
then, in connection with her position in
these four points Of her orbit, is q sole
cism, pure and simple.
"But, people are heard to say, ''as
the moon influences the tides, why should
1t not affect the atmosphere too?" To
which the Immediately obvious reply is
that the tides are a s~emi-diurnal phe-
nomenon, SO that, on this principle, the
weather. ought to change twice IA day
also-a conclusion too absurd to be enter
tanned. Nevertheless the moon does in
huence the atmosphere by causing the
production in it of tides SO minute as. I'M
der ordinary circumstances, to be masked
by other fluctuations. The existence of
these atmospheric tides was first definitely
established by the observations of the late
Professor Daniel, but il these minute
tides influenced the weather in the slight
est degree it must change twice : Gay-a
supposition o ridiculous to merit notice.
The moon on her back" as a weather
sign would appear TO be a good deal like
the old woman's indigo test-if tho dive
was pure '''twould either sink or swim,
she aforementioned which" Mr.. Fore
pauGh says it's a ''dry moon" but in
many parts of the country, and uniform
II in England, the belief prevails that
when the young moon is Lying on her
back"-in other words, when the line
joining her cusps is nearly or quite paral-
lei to the horizon, she is ''holding
water, " and rain will certainly follow.
How either belief arose it would be idle
to speculate, but the explanation of tbs
phenomenon itself is sufficiently simple.
In the outset the moon Is never much
moro than 8 dogs. either to the north or
south of the elliptic, or apparent annual
path of the sun through the heavens.
Now the line adjoining her cusps (the
sharp points of her crescenD is always
square to a great circle passing through
the sun and 400 Two minutes study
OF a celestial globe will show how variable
is the inclination of the ecliptic to the
horizon, and consequently that of the line
joining the cusps of the moon also.
Finally, the most elaborate compare
sons of meteorological records made in
France and in England (where the Green
witch observations for forty years were
carefully collated with the moons phases
during that period have suficed to show
that no connection whatever exists be-
tween them. The solitary observable
effect of the moon upon our atmosphere
was believed by Sir John Herschel to be
exhibited in the tendency to disappear
ance of cloud under the full moon, and
this he attributed to the heat radinted
from her surface.-Chicago News.